One of the most daunting tasks I face as the President of the Southern Baptist Convention is the appointment of the persons who will serve on the Committee on Committees. Since early fall, we have been working through this process diligently. The Committee on Committees has the responsibility to appoint the Committee on Nominations. The Committee on Nominations has far-reaching influence upon Southern Baptist life. They recommend the trustees of our eleven entities of the convention and our Executive Committee to the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Process

After receiving nominations from across our convention and working through our own processes of evaluating and examining candidates, it is with great privilege today that I announce the 2015 Committee on Committees. These persons are very representative of our convention. In fact, this committee is 20% multi-ethnic, which matches the percentage of churches that are multi-ethnic in our convention. This entire committee will work together to determine the very best two people at this time from their represented state or region, at least one of whom must not be employed full-time by or retired from a church, to serve on the Committee on Nominations. After working through this process between now and our 2015 Convention, they will meet together in Columbus on June 15 to determine their final recommendations. On Tuesday afternoon, June 16, they will recommend to our convention the Committee on Nominations. Then, after this process is voted upon by our convention and if the persons are affirmed, the Committee on Nominations will begin their work together to recommend trustees of our SBC entities and Executive Committee at the 2016 Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis, Missouri.

Our Leaders

The 68 people who will serve on this year’s Committee on Committees will be led by Dr. Bryan Smith, Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Roanoke, Virginia. Dr. Smith is highly gifted in every way not only as a pastor, but is also the former Chairman of the Executive Board of the Southern Baptist Convention of Virginia. He will be assisted as Vice-Chairman by Dr. Alex Himaya, Senior Pastor of theChurch.at in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dr. Smith will chart the work of this Committee on Committees and both he and Dr. Himaya will lead exceptionally well. Pray for them and for our 2015 Committee on Committees.

Dr. Ronnie Floyd is currently serving as the President of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Southern Baptist Convention is America’s largest Protestant denomination with more than 15.7 million members in over 46,000 churches nationwide.